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View all search resultsCalls mount for police to hunt down mastermind behind deadly Jakarta unrest
Calls are mounting for police to identify the mastermind behind last month’s deadly unrest in Jakarta, after investigators uncovered a paid scheme to orchestrate the violence and named individual suspects allegedly involved behind them.
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Director of the Jakarta Police Criminal Investigation Department, Sr. Comr. Iman Imanuddin,(left) and spokesperson Sr. Comr. Budi Hermanto (right) show face sketches of alleged perpetrators of unrest that led to the killing of 60-year-old mirror vendor Bambang Setiyawan in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta, during a press briefing at the Jakarta Police headquarters in South Jakarta on Sept. 2, 2026. The police also named 47 suspects allegedly involved in the damaging of public facilities and other violent acts during the unrest. (Antara/Indrianto Eko Suwarso)
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alls are mounting for police to identify the mastermind behind last month’s deadly unrest in Jakarta, after investigators uncovered a paid scheme to orchestrate the violence and named individual suspects allegedly involved behind it.
The calls came after the Jakarta Police revealed over the weekend that rioters in the Aug. 27 incident in Pejompongan, Central Jakarta, which led to the death of a 60-year-old mirror merchant, were allegedly recruited and paid, exposing an organized funding network behind the violence.
Rights group Amnesty International Indonesia has since urged police to deepen the probe beyond field operators all the way to its intellectual actor, saying the paid mobs could be acting as an extension of state force.
“The mobs’ role appeared clearly as an extension of the state that visibly used violence to disperse the protest,” Amnesty International Indonesia executive director Usman Hamid told The Jakarta Post on Sunday.
The initial protest on the morning of Aug. 27 was organized by the United Pati People’s Alliance (AMPB) from Central Java in front of the Senayan Legislative Complex in Central Jakarta, where demonstrators called for the passage of an asset forfeiture bill and harsher punishment for corrupt officials.
The protest went off peacefully until late in the afternoon after the AMPB dispersed, when rioters arrived and incited chaos that spread to surrounding areas well into the evening.
Read also: Jakarta deadly unrest prompts calls to probe alleged mobilizers
